Re: Shutt Families of Muhlenberg County, Ky

I don't know if this will help or only muddy the issue. There is another Jacob Shutt family from MD that claims Elizabeth Miller. This Jacob Shutt is the son of Johann Philip Jacob Schott/Shutt b abt 1732 Germany, who m Augusta Hess/Huss. You may remember the story of how they went to Ft Duquesne (Pittsburgh)& after Indian troubles to Boonsboro MD where Philip had 8 children including Jacob b either 1755 or 1766 (researchers vary). According to some researchers this Jacob m 3 times, first Elizabeth Miller (b 1756-), m on Jan 4, 1783. 2d Margaret Larson, 3d Harriet Davidson. Jacob d in 1835 in Hagerstown MD.

Please note the LDS International Genealogy Index (IGI)database, on Famiysearch.org shows two different dates for the Maryland marriage: Jan 4, 1783 & Jan 4 1793. Ancestry.com grabbed the 1793 date if this is the source you used.The source for the Jan 4 1783 date on IGI is "Maryland Marriages 1777 to 1804" (Batch no. M533621;Source call no. 0013148)The source for the Jan 4 1793 marriage date is from Individual Records submitted by Patrons (batch no.7135417; Source Call no.0820062) I would tend to believe the first one since it was filmed from Maryland Vital records and the records are chronological. But perhaps you'd want to order the film to be sure. Also one researcher I wrote gave me the following as the source for the 1793 date: “The source is the Marriage Index: MD, NC, VA 1624-1907 cd by Broderbund. Additional information is found on the disk that the information was collected and compiled from original records at a courthouse. They represent the dates of licenses sometimes rather than the date of marriage. It was compiled by Dorothy Ledbetter Murray and Nicholas Russell Murry Hunting for Bears, inc." Salt Lake City and David Murray, published 1955 and 1994. I haven't yet seen this source. Has anyone in this group worked on which date is correct by going to original sources?

The only place I found the KY marriage with no date was on Ancestry.com and they quoted "US and International Marriage Records 1560-1900" a record of individually group sheets submitted patrons. I can't find this on the Familysearch.org site. so I think it is something that Ancestry.com put together.

In the new familysearch.org search form the result that comes up is Jan 4, 1783 and gives the source as "Maryland Marriages 1666-1970" (batch no. M53362-1, Film no. 13148) https://blog.familysearch.org/node/1023.

If this isn't enough to make it horribly confusing, now a bunch of researchers have put up a death date of Mar 4, 1793 for Jacob Shutt who married Elizabeth Miller on Jan 4, 1793. They have him dying variously in Muhlenberg Co KY & Hagerstown, etc MD on Mar 4, 1793 These are all new from last I looked at this couple several years ago. So I believe it is a bunch of people copying each other, and where they got the Mar 4 date I don't know -- looks like a transcription error from the marriage date to me, but who knows. Researchers for both couples seem to have universally adopted the Dec 6, 1756 date of birth for both Jacobs, though no one seems to know the source of that date. Is that date on the tomb stone that Dudley reset in Shutt Cemetery McLean Co? I can't quite tell the "exact wording on tombstone" from the preceding messages.

What I do think is that there were two couples with the name Jacob Shutt & Eliz Miller; the Hagerstown couple had children and lived out their lives in MD with Jacob dying abt 1825, and the Muhlenberg couple did the same in KY, with Jacob dying abt 1835. There could even be two different dates 1783 & 1793 with a coincidence of Jan 4 as the day. I also believe one of the Elizabeth Millers was the dau of Magdelena Rochette and Philip Jacob Miller (she would be of the Muhlenberg couple according to Merle Rummel, Historian Brethren Church.) You can find more information (mostly from the Net) on this family.

I believe there is a good deal of unverified information on the Net regarding dates of marriage and birth of these two couples, and it seems to be multiplying as more researchers copy one another. Has anyone in this group come to the conclusion of two couples. I would love to hear other ideas.